Animal Man

The character of Animal Man has been around a good long time, but it wasn't until the late 1980s when Grant Morrison took over Animal Man as its own title that things started to get really interesting. Buddy Baker is something of an everyman in a world full of super heroes. He connected with audiences so quickly that what was supposed to be a mini-series was quickly turned into a regular series. Morrison's take on the character was at once mystical, but also human, in nearly equal measure. He deals with his family, but also with the actions of others, which brought in issues of environmentalism and vegetarianism to DC storylines. This aspect alone made Animal Man a rare treat. After 26 issues, Morrison moved on and left it in the hands of Peter Milligan, who gave the series a sense of six issues that were influenced by William S. Burroughs and surrealistic literature. Jamie Delano would break ground, fully exploiting the more adult nature of the Vertigo imprint to present a serious, adult storyline in which Animal Man became an animal avatar and the defender of the animal kingdom. Why it's on the list: Animal Man was a massive hit that broke serious ground.